Hugo Chavez has won six
more years as president of Venezuela and a model for standing up to the
United States. Chavez's longevity in the face of implacable imperial
hostility shows that the "Washington Consensus" is defunct. "Latin
America is the corner of the world that has achieved the greatest
success over the last 20 years in throwing off the dead weight of the
North."

Chavez Beats the Devil, Again

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

" In the United States, his ten percent winning margin would be considered a landslide."

Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez won a resounding victory in last weekend's elections. If you've
been following U.S. corporate media coverage of the campaign, that may
have come as a surprise to you. Chavez is routinely referred to as a
"strongman" and other variations on "dictator" by the U.S. media when,
in fact, he remains one of the most popular persons in all of Latin
America. In the United States, his ten percent winning margin would be
considered a landslide, but all the American media can talk about after
Chavez's latest victory at the polls is how much his lead has shrunk
since the 2006 election, when he won by 25 percent.

Every time Chavez and his Bolivarian socialists win at the polls, the corporate media have to eat crow .
One would think all that heartburn would force the U.S. press to
finally admit that Chavez is the leader of oil rich Venezuela because
large majorities of its citizens want him in the presidential palace,
and are enjoying the fruits of his wealth distribution policies.

It is also impossible for
American media, which are mouthpieces for their corporate owners and
take their day-to-day cues from the State Department and the White
House, to understand that most Venezuelans agree with Chavez when he
denounces the imperialists in Washington. They knew what Chavez meant
when he called President Bush "the devil" and said that he stank of
sulfur, back in 2006. Venezuelans remembered how Bush backed a coup that
almost toppled Chavez in 2002 -- a coup that was reversed by a
counter-rebellion of the people and loyal soldiers. They remember that
the coup leaders' first act was to abolish the Constitution and start
drawing up lists of people to be thrown into prison, or worse. They
remember the dark days when nearly all of Latin America was placed under
the rule of generals allied with Washington, and the hands of the
torturers and the death squads could reach into every family with
impunity. They know who was the author of that nightmare: the United
States.

" Every time Chavez and his Bolivarian socialists win at the polls, the corporate media have to eat crow."

That's why Latin America
is the corner of the world that has achieved the greatest success over
the last 20 years in throwing off the dead weight of the North, by
rejecting the so-called Washington Consensus. And that's why, this time
around, the Venezuelan opposition chose a candidate who pretended to be a
leftist, himself. Challenger Henrique Capriles, a young state governor,
styled himself as a protege of former Brazilian president "Lula" da
Silva, a more business-friendly type of leftwing politician. But
Venezuela's poor know the who opposition really are: the affluent,
mostly light-skinned people that live in swank neighborhoods and whose
hearts dwell in Miami. The people who draw cartoons in opposition
newspapers depicting Chavez as a monkey and openly sneer at his mixed
race heritage -- the heritage of most Venezuelans. They know what real
democracy feels like, because they remember what living under the yoke
of a rich white minority felt like. Democracy is having a government
that's not made up of those people whose hearts are in Miami. Democracy
calls the top Yankee a devil, and the people cheer, and then the people
vote.

For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.